Chapter 5, Chapter 5

(a) Upon the application of a member of the retirement system, or his or her present or past employing authority, any member who is in the employ of a participating public employer or was in the employ of a participating public employer on a date which is twelve months or less fr…

(a) At least once each year during the first five years following the retirement of a member on account of disability, as provided in section twenty-five of this article, and at least once in each three-year period thereafter, the board may require a disability retirant, who has …

(a) (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, in the event any member who has ten or more years of credited service or any former member with ten or more years of credited service and who is entitled to a deferred annuity, pursuant to section twenty- one of this article, …

Notwithstanding any other provision of this article or state law, the board shall administer the retirement system in compliance with the limitations of Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code and regulations promulgated thereunder to the extent applicable to governmental plans …

The requirements of this section apply to any distribution of a member’s or beneficiary’s interest and take precedence over any inconsistent provisions of this code. This provision applies to plan years beginning after December 31, 1986. Notwithstanding anything in this code to t…

(a) Except where otherwise stated, this section applies to distributions made on or after January 1, 1993. Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary that would otherwise limit a distributee's election under this system, a distributee may elect, at the time and…

Repay withdrawn contributions. (a) This section applies to rollovers and transfers as specified in this section made on or after January 1, 2002. Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary that would otherwise prohibit or limit rollovers and plan transfers to t…

For financing and accounting purposes, the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System shall consist of only one division, including, in combination, the participating state employees and participating public employees who are not state employees. Unified accounting of the r…

(a) The members' deposit fund is hereby created. It shall be the fund in which shall be accumulated, at regular interest, the contributions deducted from the compensation of members, and from which refunds of accumulated contributions shall be paid and transfers made as provided …

The following words and phrases as used in this article, unless a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context, have the following meanings: (1) "Accumulated contributions" means the sum of all amounts credited to a member's individual account in the member’s deposit fun…

(a) The board shall hold a meeting at least once each three months, and shall designate the time and place of the meeting. Seven voting trustees constitute a quorum at any meeting of the board. Each member is entitled to one vote on each question before the board. The board shall…

The West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System is hereby created and established to provide for the orderly retirements of employees, of the state and the other participating public employers, who become superannuated because of age or total and permanent disability, and to…

(a) Whenever a supervisory board, upon receipt of a verified complaint or otherwise, has reasonable cause to believe that a participant or former participant rendered less than honorable service as defined in section two of this article, it shall notify the affected participant, …

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, including, without limitation, this chapter and chapter five-a of this code, the state employer and a public employer have the power necessary or appropriate to carry out the provisions and objectives of this article…

(a) In the event a member leaves the employ of a participating public employer prior to the date the member becomes entitled to retire with an annuity payable by the retirement system, the member shall be paid, upon the member’s written application filed with the board of trustee…

(a) The Employers Accumulation Fund is hereby continued. It is the fund in which shall be accumulated the contributions made by the participating public employers to the retirement system, and from which transfers shall be made as provided in this section. (b) Based upon the prov…

Those public employers who are participating in the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System and elected to participate after July 1, 1961, and those employers who are eligible but who have not elected to participate, may elect to cover their employees retroactive for the…

(a) At least thirty days prior to each regular session of the Legislature, the board of trustees shall certify to the Governor the contributions, determined according to section thirty-one hereof, to be made by the state to the retirement system for the next following fiscal year…

(a) The board of trustees shall annually certify to each participating public employer, other than the state, the employer contribution rate, determined in section thirty-one hereof, for the public employer division. Each participating public employer shall pay to the state Treas…

Upon the retirement of a member, or if an annuity becomes payable on account of the death of a member, the difference between the annuity reserve and the member's accumulated contributions standing to his credit in the members deposit fund at the time of his retirement or death, …

The retirement reserve fund is hereby created. It shall be the fund from which shall be paid all annuities payable as provided in this article. If a disability retirant returns to the employ of a participating public employer, his annuity reserve at that time shall be transferred…

The income fund is hereby created. It shall be the fund to which shall be credited all interest, dividends and other income from investments of the retirement system, all transfers from the members deposit fund by reason of lack of claimant or forfeiture of interest credits, and …

All moneys of the retirement system not currently required for the payment of annuities or other benefits shall be invested by the board of public works in any securities or investments in which the sinking funds of the state may be legally invested, or in any securities or inves…

Except as otherwise provided in this article, no trustee, no member of the board of public works, and no employee of the board of trustees shall have any interest, direct or indirect, in the gains or profits arising from any investment or reinvestment of retirement system moneys.…

(a) The provisions of this article shall be liberally construed so as to provide a general retirement system for the employees of the state herein made eligible for such retirement: Provided, That nothing in this article shall be construed as permitting any governmental unit, its…

(a) Every state employee commencing work on and after July 1, 2007, shall have a minimum of $10 per pay period of his or her salary deferred to the state deferred compensation plan unless the state employee provides written notice declining to participate in accordance with the T…

(a) The board is hereby empowered and authorized to employ a state retirement actuary or actuarial firm with such qualifications as the board may prescribe or to utilize an actuary already in the employ of the state. The actuary or actuarial firm shall perform the following dutie…

(a) The State of West Virginia for its public employees and county boards of education for its teachers and nonteachers shall pick-up and pay the contributions which the employees are required by law to make to the retirement system in which they are a member for all compensation…

The effective date of the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System shall be July 1, 1961: Provided, however, That for any participating public employer which cannot make its contribution as provided by this article from its 1961-1962 current funds, the effective date as t…

(a) The responsibility for implementing the deferred compensation plan for employees of the state employer shall be delegated to the board of trustees through June 30, 2006. On July 1, 2006, the Treasurer shall manage any deferred compensation plan for state employees. Any and al…

(a) If a participant, former participant or beneficiary informs the supervisory board within forty days after service of the notice as provided in section three of this article that he or she demands that the board seek a determination in circuit court, the board shall immediatel…

The moneys, investments and all other assets of the retirement system shall be used for the sole purpose of meeting the disbursements for annuities and other payments authorized by this article, and shall be used for no other purpose whatsoever.

The board of trustees shall, at the end of each calendar year, allow and credit regular interest on the balance at the beginning of that calendar year in each member's individual account in the members deposit fund and on the mean balances in the employers accumulation fund and t…

The fiscal or plan year of the retirement system shall coincide with the fiscal year of the state.

Any provision in this article to the contrary notwithstanding, if at the end of any fiscal year the total of the annuities paid from the retirement reserve fund during the said fiscal year is more than ten percent of the sum of the balances in the employers accumulation fund and …

(a) General rule. — Upon learning of any errors, the board shall correct errors in the retirement system in a timely manner whether an individual, entity or board was at fault for the error with the intent of placing the affected individual, entity and retirement board in the pos…

Any person who shall knowingly make any false statement or shall falsify or permit to be falsified any record or records of the retirement system in any attempt to defraud the system shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished accordingly.

The right of a person to any benefit provided for in this article shall not be subject to execution, attachment, garnishment, the operation of bankruptcy or insolvency laws, or other process whatsoever, nor shall any assignment thereof be enforceable in any court except that the …

The annuities and other benefits provided by this article, and the assets of the retirement system, are hereby exempt from state, county and municipal taxes.

(a) The Legislature finds that a compelling state interest exists in maintaining an actuarially sound retirement system and that this interest necessitates that certain limitations be placed upon an individual’s ability to retire from the system and to then later return to state …

Any member of the retirement system who has been removed from office or his office shall have been vacated for official misconduct, incompetence, neglect of duty, gross immorality, malfeasance, or misfeasance shall immediately have his membership in the retirement system terminat…

In enacting this article, it is the intent of the Legislature that the retirement plan created pursuant to this article and those created pursuant to §5-10-1 et seq.; §7-14D-1 et seq.; §8-22A-1 et seq.; §15-2-1 et seq.; §18-7A-1 et seq.; §51-9-1 et seq.; §18-23-4a; §8-22-16; §18-…

The board of trustees of the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System is hereby continued. The administration and management of the retirement system, the responsibility for making effective the provisions of this article, and the authority to make all rules and regulatio…

(a) The board shall terminate a participant's, former participant's or beneficiary's membership in any and all plans in which he or she is or has been a member and shall not thereafter pay any benefits to the participant, former participant or his or her beneficiaries if an affec…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the board, or the Treasurer beginning July 1, 2006, as well as the appropriate local officer, board or committee, designated as responsible for implementing a deferred compensation plan, is hereby authorized to invest co…

If any part of this article is declared unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of this article, or the article in its entirety.

The police department and/or fire department of any municipality of this state, which municipality is a participating employer as defined in section two (5)) hereof, may withdraw its firemen and/or policemen from the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System provided the f…

The provisions of this article specifying that a legislator may be a member of the retirement system and at the same time also a member of another state or political subdivision retirement program and may receive credit in the retirement system from two or more public employments…

Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, any staff member participating in the Public Employees Retirement System employed by Hopemont Hospital, Jackie Withrow Hospital, John Manchin Sr. Health Care Center, or Lakin State Hospital on October 31, 2025, who will …

In light of the determination to repeal the Public Employees Retirement System II (PERS II) before its proposed date of initial operation, a study shall be undertaken through the cooperative efforts of the board of the Public Employees Retirement System, the board of the Teachers…